Comparing Blake Griffin's Young NBA Career to Tim Duncan's Early Years
Friday night, the San Antonio Spurs square off against the Los Angeles Clippers. It's a game that features the past of the game's great power forwards in Tim Duncan to future of the game's great power forwards in Blake Griffin. The pair make for an intriguing comparison and contrast.
A quick look at the traditional per game numbers shows some striking similarities.
| Tim Duncan | 39.1 | .527 | .674 | 3.3 | 8.4 | 11.7 | 2.6 | 0.8 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 3.0 | 21.3 |
| Blake Griffin | 37.6 | .513 | .618 | 3.3 | 8.5 | 11.8 | 3.5 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 2.6 | 3.1 | 22.2 |
Their advanced stats are similarly very close.
| Tim Duncan | 22.8 | .563 | 17.1 | 13.1 | 1.0 | 4.5 | 14.5 | 26.5 |
| Blake Griffin | 22.3 | .548 | 18.4 | 17.7 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 11.5 | 27.4 |
Both players were taken with the No. 1 overall pick. Both players took the league by storm. Both players could dominate a game. Both were paired early on by a companion player who was his senior with whom they had a tandem nickname. For Tim Duncan it was David Robinson and the "Twin Towers." For Griffin, it is Chris Paul and "Lob City."
Yet, while they are similar in so many ways, the contrasts are equally vivid. Griffin is a player who draws ratings like no one else. Words you never thought you'd utter truthfully can be uttered truthfully: The Los Angeles Clipper right now are the second biggest road draw in the NBA.
While Griffin is one of the most exciting young stars, he is without a championship. Granted, he's been in just one year, but after one season Duncan was already a champion.
Duncan wasn't just a champion, he was a finals MVP, and an All-Star Game MVP. Yet in spite of his prodigious play, "the Big Fundamental" was labeled as boring. The Spurs' 1999 championship finals were, at the time, the lowest ratings in a decade.
In the three championships they've won since then, they've fared even worse.
While it's unfair to lay blame on Griffin for not having won a championship yet, he's only in his second year and it's evident that there are holes in his game. While Duncan depended on steadiness, technique and fundamentals, Griffin relies on his explosiveness and athleticism.
Duncan is best known for winning. Griffin is best known for making "Moazov" a verb.
It will be interesting to watch these two Friday night. For the near future, it will be interesting to see if Griffin incorporates more completeness to his game (a la Ducan), and as a result, rings.
Then we might say something we'd never dreamed we'd say, "The world champion Los Angeles Clippers."
